Please introduce yourself and tell the readers about you, your family, your background, where you are originally from and what led you up to this point.

Hi! We are Alessandro (36), Sanne (33), Mick (2) and Lou (our dog). We are a Dutch family who are travelling through Europe in our RV for an undetermined time. We sold our house, sold or gave away our stuff and quit our jobs, bought an RV and started travelling. Just like that!

Back in Holland, Sanne was a teacher and Alessandro a photographer and retoucher. We lived in Amsterdam and we had a busy working and social life. When Mick was born we soon found out that we had to change something about our busy lives in order to spend more time with Mick. We strongly felt that we wanted to spend much more time with him and each other.

I mean nobody will ever look back on life and think “I spent too much time with my kids”.

So we dreamed about a simpler life, one with less stress and more freedom. A more fulfilling lifestyle. We realised that we were working for the wrong reasons; our house, our car, just a lot of material stuff we actually didn’t need. We didn’t wanted this anymore! Life is so short, we just want to be able to do what we want to do.

So, we made up this plan to sell almost everything we owned and start living in a tiny house (our RV) and travel through Europe and just enjoy life and each other as much as we can.

A quote that really moved us and made us start thinking….

The trouble is we think we have time.

— Buddha

Where abouts in the world are you right now?

At this moment we are driving through the North of Spain ( Asturias)

What do you love about this place?

The nature is absolutely beautiful! The coastlines are stunning! And the people are very friendly. It’s still really authentic, not a lot of tourists, like in the South of Spain.

Anything you don’t like?!

Nope, we really like it all…well OK one thing…: every shop is closed on Sundays and we forgot about it that a couple of times!

What are the three most challenging aspects that stand out?

The funny thing about the most challenging aspects is that sometimes they also are the most loved aspects at the same time.

Living in our tiny RV is sometimes quite challenging. Especially when it rains and you have a toddler! We bumped our heads and toes a million times and you never have enough space to store your stuff. At the same time, we love the simple life and we discovered how little we actually need. Our tiny RV really feels like home.

The nomad lifestyle is a hardworking life. When we started we thought we would get all the time in the world and we finally can relax and read a book! Wauw, how wrong were we hahaha!

While travelling Alessandro started his own business. He is working 3 days a week (as a photographer and retoucher) and in the evening we are most of the time busy with for example Instagram or looking for new places to visit and to photograph etc.

Mick is also 24/7 around us so we have to do a lot of stuff in the evening or very early in the morning when he is still asleep. When we are not working we are travelling and that can be also quite exhausting. All the impressions of new places, finding good spots to sleep etc. And of course we still have to cook and do the household chores. So it is certainly no vacation!

Last but not least, we really miss our family and they really miss us. Actually they really miss Mick!. Sometimes we feel guilty about this…and a little bit sad as well.

How’s the food!

The Spanish food is delicious! If you are in to tapas, you will love it here! The only thing is that we don’t want to eat a lot of meat. At home (our RV) we always cook vegetarian. In the Spanish restaurants you don’t have a lot of vegetarian options.

Any funny, interesting or daunting experiences along the way?

We always wanted to keep control but our experience is that life takes care of you and that you can rely on this thought a little bit more.

Also, along the way we got a lot of new ideas and got inspired by people we meet, the things we see and discover. That brings a lot of positive energy and opens new doors.

Can you give us 3 tips for making it work?

1. Go with the flow; this is something we really learned in our trip. Some days you plan activities and none of them work out and some days you've got some unexpected surprises. Try to embrace both!

2. Travel slow! When you are travelling with children don’t plan too much on a day. It’s a mindset, when you set to a slower travel experience and you can adjust to the child’s daily rhythm it’s so much easier! And besides, it’s not a vacation, it’s a new lifestyle. So don’t be afraid to miss out! You can’t see everything.

3. Talk with each other. What are your expectations of this journey? Do you have the same goals? Make this very clear for yourself before you leave and write it down so you can always look back and adjust your goals if necessary. Ask yourself questions, like do you want to work while your travelling? If you are travelling with kids; do you choose homeschooling?..and so on!

Do you have any financial tips for travelling?

Travelling is always more expensive than you think it will be. At least that’s our experience. So make a good financial overview before you leave. And, write down every penny you spend! Than you can easily see where your money is going and if necessary you can do something about it.

When you are travelling with a RV, there are a lot of free spots. We use the app park4night and NKC. It saves a lot of money!

Try to save a small amount of money for backup.

What do you miss, if anything?

Our family and friends of course!

What advice would you give to other Mamas planning on travelling with their family?

Just do it! Don’t overthink it too much! And yes, travelling with children is sometimes challenging, but it is all worth it! It was our best decision ever!